Hacker turns down Sony interview due to treatment of Geohot

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With all the news surrounding Sony focusing on trying to prosecute Geohot for his PS3 jailbreak, it’s easy to forget the Japanese company is also busy creating in-house games and researching new ideas and new hardware solutions. Part of that effort is identifying talented individuals and offering them positions at Sony to help with those projects.

Sony’s internal recruiter Sarah McRae sent Dutta an e-mail stating that the Talent Acquisition department at Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) had been looking at his website My Brain Hurts. She then proceeds to ask Dutta if he’d be interested in a phone interview for a new software engineering position that was just opening up with the PlayStation division. You can view the e-mail exchange below (click to enlarge):

A position at Sony working in the PlayStation department may sound very tempting to many a developer, especially if Sony decided to head hunt you themselves. But Dutta took the moral high ground and politely declined the invitation. It wasn’t because he already had a job, it was specifically because of, as Dutta puts it, “Sony’s recent treatment of a fellow hacker.” The hacker Dutta is referring to is George Hotz or Geohot as he is now better known.

We have to assume Sarah McRae is aware of the situation with GeoHot and we wonder if she decided to respond to Dutta’s message or just walk away. Whatever the case, I doubt Sony ever thought that targeting a hacker would have an impact on its ability to employ talented software engineers. It’s also a reminder of the feelings surrounding this action by Sony, which are anything but positive.